060029 SE Jew-hatred - Palestine - Israel: Opportunities and Risks of Co-Existences (2024W)

Since the first efforts to establish the state of Israel and the first Jewish immigrations to the region, conflicts and polemics against the Jewish migration movement and the emerging Zionism existed. These conflicts escalated with the Balfour Declaration (1917) and the founding of the State of Israel (1948). Similar national movements emerged on the Arab side after the Balfour Declaration. Since then, Arab and Jewish groups have been in conflict both with the British colonial power and with each other. This situation continued after the founding of the state of Israel with the Arab-Israeli wars (1947-1949 [War of Independence], 1956-1957 [Sinai War], 1967 [Six-Day War], 1967-1970 [War of Attrition], 1973 [Yom Kippur War], 1982 [Lebanon War], 2006 [Lebanon War]). Since the late 20th century the conflict has increasingly been carried out by terrorist means, and since the 21st century military means became increasingly present again. The most recent culmination of this spiral of violence is the crime against humanity of October 7, 2023 and the subsequent Gaza War.

Palestinians describe this conflict as an expulsion (Nakba) and as colonial oppression by the state of Israel. Israelis experience it as a constant threat to their existence through military and terrorist violence. Efforts to achieve peaceful coexistence on both sides have repeatedly failed due to the violence of terrorist groups, propaganda and agitation. Terrorist violence as well as propaganda and agitation have long since left the state of Israel and the Palestinian autonomous territories and have arrived in the world, Europe and Austria. The relationship between the parties to the conflict is often articulated in in the form hostility towards Islam and Jews. Fake news and fake history are popular means of agitation in this conflict.

This class aims to provide students at the University of Vienna with a space in which they can inform themselves and discuss opposing positions with each other. We want to facilitate objective discussions and ask our students for mutual respect and a discussion beyond polemics and verbal attacks, even and especially when the opinions expressed in class are difficult to bear and understand.

In the first part of the class, the course instructors will introduce students to the topic with a series of lectures, which the students should scrutinize critically. The second part of the seminar will consist of a series of guestlectures to which both academic voices and public figures will be invited. The lecture series will be made accessible to a wider public. These lectures will also be critically scrutinized by the students of the seminar.